Jan Bono
Apr21
“What’s her name?” a well-meaning friend asked me.
I sighed. “Remember the television sitcom ‘Murphy Brown’?”
“With Candice Bergen.” My friend nodded. “Of course. She’s still one of my all-time TV heroes. So what’s that have to do with the name of your new car?”
I sighed again. “Just like Murphy’s baby, much to my chagrin, it turns out that my car’s a boy.”
“Seriously?” she asked. “Just because it’s blue?”
But no, the color had little, if anything, to do with it, and although everyone I knew had just assumed I’d get a red Mustang, I’d bought the first one that truly inspired my imagination, which just happened to be a Kona blue coupe with black racing stripes, enhanced air flow and exhaust systems, and about 355 horses under the hood.
I’d been driving the car about a week the first time someone asked its gender.
“Don’t know yet,” I replied. I was at the Great Day Café in Surfside, having lunch.
“Check under the hood,” said the affable and eavesdropping Steve from behind the counter where he was preparing our fabulous sandwiches.
Everyone laughed. Not to be outdone, I retorted with, “You mean I should check to see if there’s ‘junk in the trunk,’ and if there is, then it’s definitely a boy?”
I was pleased to note that the laughs were a wee bit bigger, although some people were undoubtedly covering their embarrassment at my lack of mouth filter.
Nevertheless, I feel a dominant rush of power whenever I get behind the wheel, and I enjoy the deep, rumbling growls when I start it up, so it’s a pretty safe bet it’s a male. I can tell by the way it takes my breath away whenever I am near it. No offense meant to anyone who leans otherwise, but only a guy could ever make my heart beat so wildly.
“So have you named HIM yet?” my friend asked again, several weeks later.
I nodded. “It took a few days of Internet research, and I had to check with the Department of Licensing to be sure it wasn’t a license plate already taken, but I finally settled on XANTHUS.”
“XANTHUS?” She shook her head. “Are you going to tell me, or are you going to make me Google it?”
I smiled. “In Greek mythology, Xanthus was one of Achilles’ two immortal horses.”
“Of course it was.” My friend laughed. “So now I suppose you two will become the new dynamic duo: Jan and Xan.”
Was there ever any doubt?
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Apr18
It must be my week to get out and listen to some great music. Tonight, Tony Starlight brings his “Neil Diamond Tribute” to the Venetian Theatre in Hillsboro, and I’ll be up in the balcony watching the engaged audience participation, and happily singing along.
I’ve seen this show before. It was my first introduction to the man behind the Tony Starlight Supperclub and Lounge in northeast Portland. Since then, I’ve seen his fabulous “Christmas Extravaganza,” his “A.M. Gold,” (songs of the 70s), and this past Valentine’s Day, his “Dean Martin Tribute.”
They’ve all been great, but his Neil Diamond show is my favorite, and I can’t wait to see it again. So if you’ve of a mind to enjoy a wonderful night on the town, there’s still time, but you better hurry. Show starts at 8 p.m.!
Meanwhile, here’s a five and half minute overview of Tony’s amazing talent, showmanship, and fun! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNdWYDrdOmw ENJOY!
Apr15
Who immediately comes to mind when you read, “Obie took twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one to be used as evidence against us.”
Yep, the very same guy who wrote and sang the ever-popular classic, “I don’t want a pickle—just want to ride my motorcycle….”
But radio stations of the early 70s rarely played those two tunes. Instead, they chose to air “The City of New Orleans,” which is a fine song, and much, much, shorter without the rambling stories inserted. Rambling stories, which became the trademark of none other than Woody Guthrie’s son Arlo.
And now Arlo Guthrie is joined by his own son Abe (on keyboards and vocals) on a nation-wide tour known as “Here Comes the Kids.” The tour continues to focus on the Woody Guthrie Centennial, but promises to contain more of Arlo’s own material.
Rick and I will be in attendance during Arlo’s Portland stop tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to a brisk walk down Nostalgia Lane, and expect I’ll be singing along with more than a few of the tunes. (Woody wrote the historically correct 7-verse “Roll On, Columbia,” which I attempted to teach to hundreds of elementary students, as well as “This Land is Your Land,” his most popular and enduring song.)
And I’m hoping that sometime during the show, we’ll be treated to a modified version of “Alice’s Restaurant.” Cause it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it.
Apr12
Back in the day, baby girls were always wrapped in pink, and baby boys in blue. I’ve never been a pink kind of gal myself, always leaning toward the cooler side of the color wheel, towards the greens and blues and purples.
I wonder if that’s because I was wrapped in a baby blue blanket at birth. (And how come there’s a “baby blue” and not a “baby pink” anyway?)
Being a Gemini, the sign of the twins, I’ve always figured that meant I could have at least two “favorite colors,” so I picked purple and green, since blue seemed to be unalterably reserved for boys.
Famed (and local!) watercolor artist Charles Mulvey reinforced the gender bias of color when he came to do a demonstration for the sixth graders. As he painted the familiar “couple walking on the beach” scene, he told us how the taller one always wore a blue jacket and the shorter one wore red.
“What would happen if you switched the colors?” I asked.
Charles laughed. “I tried that,” he replied. “The painting didn’t sell.”
I found that observation very interesting, but also rather disturbing. Is our color comfort zone automatically restricted by societal conditioning?
With this question in mind, I did a little investigative research. Undeniably, the color favorites of men and women seem to follow the pattern. The majority of females I queried leaned toward the warmer size of the wheel, predominantly red, while the men strongly favored blue, and the colors closest to it.
Which then led me to consider that perhaps I have a higher testosterone level than most women—or maybe it explains why I have so many more men than women friends. (YEs, it’s weird stuff like this that keeps me awake at night!)
One notable exception in my survey was a guy who insisted that his favorite color was “rainbow.”
“I like them all,” he said. “I never met color I didn’t like.” And when pressed to choose just one, he stubbornly refused. “It’s either rainbow—or darkness.”
I am most grateful for friends like that—friends who push me to think outside the box. Or better yet, those who tell me there is no box, and that I should immediately stop putting limitations on my thinking.
So now I ask you—what’s YOUR favorite color—and why?
Apr09
Our family took frequent weekend “road trips” to visit Grandpa, or spend some time in the sunshine of Eastern Washington. To keep the four kids from squabbling, Mom often encouraged us to sing.
“Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy…” “I’m looking over, a four-leaf clover, that I overlooked before…” “I’ve been working on the railroad, all the live-long day…” “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…”
I know it frustrated Mom no end that none of us ever learned to harmonize. Grandpa called Mom and my two aunts his “Andrew Sisters,” and they all learned to play the piano and sing hymns and other tunes together in the parlor.
Conversely, I never learned to play the piano . As a young teen I learned songs from the older kids on the berry bus, headed for the fields to pick strawberries and raspberries.
“Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now…” “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt…” “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms…” “There was a farmer, had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o… B-I-N-G-O…”
Today, as it turns out, is the 99th day of 2014, which prompted this entire post… So feel free to sing along: “Ninety-nine bottle of beer on the wall…”
I wonder if anyone ever got all the way down to just one bottle of beer on the wall? Sure couldn’t prove it by me!
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